20 Years of Experience
by AnimeWolfGirl9
Summary: (Prequel to "Survivors") Joel was suddenly thrown into the outbreak, having no warning of the chaos that would happen next. The world he knew was burned to ruin, giving rise to a new, more violent one. Now, he not only has to gain 20 years of experience from this world, but also has to adapt and survive in a world where you can only trust yourself.
1. The Outbreak

Quick note before we start:

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters/places/anything mentioned from the Last of Us or anything else and everything belongs to its respective owners.**

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Chapter 1: The Outbreak

The rain had stopped around an hour ago, leaving a misty scent in the air. The sun had long since left the sky, bringing darkness with it. Fireflies lit up some spaces from time to time, flitting around the outside of the house.

The light from the TV in the living room brought his attention back to the news. A woman was reporting on the late night events.

_"The amount of patients in the Columbus Hospital has risen 300%. Police are cautioning for people to stay away from anyone exhibiting the following symptoms-"_

Joel shook his head, not sure what to make of the news. He had heard the broadcast over and over again for the past week or so, but no one knew what was causing the sickness.

_People are just getting sick, like always,_ he thought, trying to ignore the "300%" increase the news had just reported.

A buzzing noise came from the kitchen, and he walked back in to see his cell phone vibrating. He walked over and picked it up off the table, wondering who was calling at this time of night.

_It's two in the morning,_ he thought, glancing at the name of the caller and pressing the talk button.

"You missed me already? You were just here two days ago David," he joked a bit, hearing his brother let out a strained laugh on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, well your birthday was two days ago, so of course I had to drive the whole way out there," his brother answered, but then his tone grew serious, "Joel, you need to turn on the news. Right now."

His brother's command almost made him sound frantic, and Joel shook his head as he walked back into the living room, glancing at the TV.

"It's already on," he answered, but froze when he saw what was on the TV, "Oh my-"

"Yeah, it's getting worse," his brother's voice stated, but then fell silent, letting him watch the update.

_"Citizens in New York City are advised to evacuate. The planes will be flying overhead in five minutes," _the leader of the military was shown on TV, giving the announcement. The news switched back to the woman.

_"As shown, citizens are being evacuated before the bombing. Everyone around the surrounding area is cautioned to stay indoors…"_ the woman's voice faded as his brother spoke over the phone.

"You still there Joel?" his brother's voice made him walk into the living room, taking a deep breath as he sat down on the couch.

"Yeah," he answered, feeling somewhat overwhelmed, "They're bombing New York."

"I saw that," his brother stated, making him shake his head in disbelief.

"Why are they even-?" he started to ask, but then he sighed, "Please don't tell me it's because of that virus that's been going around…"

"That's the reason," David stated, and then his voice grew urgent, "Joel, you have to get out of the town."

His brother's words made him somewhat shocked, and he didn't answer for a moment.

"Leave?" he repeated, staring in shock at the TV as the commercials played. It would be another few minutes until it got back to the news.

"Yes, you have to get out of town now!" David's voice became urgent again, "It's already hell here! Meet me at the barn and-"

Beeping noises sounded from his phone, and he glanced down at it to see the connection had died. His eyes widened as he tried to take in the information.

_Leave the town and meet David at the barn,_ he took a deep breath as he stood up, walking towards his office, _I can do that much. But he'd better have a good explanation._

Joel shook his head, opening the middle drawer of his desk and pulling out a black safety box. He opened the case and pulled out a pistol, grabbing some ammunition from the drawer.

_Thankfully David and I took that class last summer,_ he thought, moving to grab his backpack. He figured if they were going on a 'trip', then he would need it for carrying supplies.

He walked out into the kitchen and grabbed a few water bottles, knowing he would need to stock up on supplies since the journey to the barn was a few days from his house.

He put the water bottles into his backpack and was just about to grab something else from the fridge when he froze, his gaze settling on the window.

Red and orange flames were coming from the neighbor's house, and he heard screaming from inside. He quickly grabbed his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder as he ran out into the front yard, looking at the neighbor's house.

The screaming died down just as he started to make his way towards the house, and he sadly knew that no one was left.

_What is going on?_ He wondered, shaking his head, _better keep packing._

Joel turned to walk back into the house, but stopped when he heard the sounds of a car a few feet away. He turned around, only to move to the left as a car nearly hit him.

The side of the car caught his leg and he bent down in the grass, holding it for a moment until the pain ceased. He wasn't hurt badly; the hit had just stung him for a few moments.

He was about to call out to whoever had been driving the car, which had by now crashed into a tree, but stopped when he saw blood was spattered on the windshield. He warily walked around to look into the window, seeing the driver dead with blood pooling down his shirt.

He glanced in the back of the car for any other passengers and found none. He shook his head, knowing the impact couldn't have killed the driver.

He back away from the car, spying something in between the tree and vehicle. On closer observation, he realized that a person who looked similar to those that were admitted to the Columbus Hospital was dead, partially smashed between the car and tree.

"Is this what he meant?" Joel mumbled, shaking his head in slight confusion. He started walking away, taking one last glance at the car accident before setting his gaze ahead of him.

He took a deep breath as he walked into the garage, glancing through the small window at the news again, or more like where the news _should_ have been. Instead, the fuzzy black and white screen stared back at him, giving him no clue as to what was going on.

_No phones, no television…_ his thought trailed off as the electricity to the house went dead, leaving him in almost pitch darkness, _This can't all be because of one sickness._

"It won't help any to stay here," he mumbled, realizing he wouldn't be able to take his car out to the barn this time, "I guess I'll just be walking then."

He walked out of the house, realizing that everything was not normal. Things seemed too quiet, almost like one of those horror movies when you knew something bad would happen.

The streets were eerily quiet; no one else was outside of the houses. Joel knew he lived on an almost dead-end street, but this seemed almost ridiculous.

The lights in every other house he passed were also out, giving no indication of whether anyone was inside; proof of a wide scale power outage caused by something unknown.

He continued walking, knowing he would be heading towards Columbus before making his way to the small trail that headed in the direction of the barn. When he did get to the edge of Columbus, which wasn't that far from where he lived, he didn't expect to see the chaos in front of him.

Buildings were on fire and crowds of people were running through the streets.

_No, it almost looks like they're running from something,_ he thought, noticing a small group of people who looked similar to the ones from the hospital chasing after the crowds.

He checked through the list of symptoms the news had broadcasted for the past few weeks, each of them checking off. The people seemed more aggressive than usual, but he wasn't sure what was causing it, other than the possibility of that virus…

He shook his head, deciding to take one of the less crowded streets, hopefully avoiding any of the strange acting people. He came onto another main road and saw the movie theater up in flames as well.

His mind thought back to yesterday, when David had dragged him to see a movie. It was a teen movie, the words "Dawn of the Wolf Part 2" being reflected on the movie theater's advertisements.

He hadn't known why his brother had dragged him to see it at the time; there was a bunch of other things they could have gone to see. He had figured out later that David had been trying to distract him long enough for their family to pull off a 'surprise party' for his birthday, and that the movie had been the longest at the time.

He was ripped from the memory when something collided into him, shoving him to the ground. He glanced over to see a terrified man, his eyes wide as he quickly got up and continued running.

Brief confusion ran through him as he stared after the man, but it was soon answered when he saw another hospital patient running towards him. He quickly scrambled to his feet, his hand hovering near his pistol for a moment before he decided to take off running as well.

He knew where an exit to the city was, being another side path that most people didn't use. He just hoped that it was still unoccupied.

He lost sight of the hospital patient after a while as he veered onto another abandoned street. The patient had seemed distracted as another crowd of people had gone running by a few miles back, and Joel hoped that they were alright.

_I need to get out of here, find out what's going on._

He slowed his pace when he neared the path leading out of the city, hearing a strange sound in the distance. He glanced up to see planes flying over the city, but not normal planes.

_Bomber planes;_ the thought made his eyes widen as he increased his pace, not knowing why they had no warning.

There had been no military presence trying to keep the situation calm, and now his mind came to one conclusion. His guess was right when he got to the end of the road and loud explosions came from behind him.

The aftershock of some of the closer blasts knocked him forward, into the river that cut off the dirt road. His vision swam as he was knocked into the water; darkness being all he could see for a moment as he kicked for what he guessed was the surface.

Something sharp collided with his leg as he swam for the surface, making it harder to keep himself above water. He aimed for the bank, coming out on the other side soaked and shaking.

Joel glanced back at the city, seeing it engulfed in flames as the planes continued their attack. His mind was blank, but strangely overwhelmed at what was happening.

The city was going to be leveled, reduced to ashes within a few hours. He knew he wouldn't be able to go back, so with the only other option being to meet David at the barn, he set off through the woods, going in a northeastern direction.

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Well, here it is! The prequel to "Survivors"! I would like to welcome back anyone who has read "Survivors" and my other Last of Us fanfictions, as well as welcoming anyone new to my work! To clear things up, this fanfiction is most likely going to be considered an AU since it is of the outbreak and the twenty years before "Survivors". This fanfiction does not follow the game's backstory for Joel; it is my own made-up backstory for him for when I was writing "Survivors". This is mainly to help clear up some of Joel's backstory and some events mentioned in "Survivors", so hopefully it will help with that. Sorry if this might seem a bit rushed or choppy; I had the idea of how I wanted Joel's backstory to start in my head before the game came out, and now I find it is hard to translate to words. This being said, even though I am going through the twenty years before "Survivors", that does not mean that I will be going 365 days a year kind of thing. I am going to be highlighting the major events of what happens during those twenty years. With that being said, please tell me how I did in a review and I will see you next chapter!

-AnimeWolfGirl9


	2. The Barn

**AnimeWolfGirl16:** Thanks!

**rangers123:** Yeah, I am trying to not let the game's backstory influence this one. I've had so many times where I'm tempted to include something or someone from the game, but it isn't consistent with what Joel shared with Ellie in "Survivors". Thanks for your on-going support as well! :)

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Chapter 2: The Barn

Normally the trip to the barn would take almost a day by car. There were back roads that led to the abandoned spot where Joel had constantly gone with his brother growing up. Their "land in-between", as they like to call it, consisted of an old barn in a clearing surrounded by a forest.

This time, though, the trip took several days longer. Joel didn't have his car, and he figured that he wouldn't be able to retrieve it from his house now because of the bombing, and was forced to walk the way.

Of course that wasn't new to him; his brother had once convinced him that they should try and walk the whole way from their childhood home to the barn, despite losing the daylight that was normally reserved for hunting. So, now he figured he should be thankful to his brother, but right now he was mainly confused.

Whatever had caused this mess had something to do with the virus that was going around, that much he had gathered from the phone call from his brother before the line had gone dead. But what about the illness? Why was it so important now that the government was bombing whole cities and towns to stop it?

He shook his head, knowing he would not be able to find the answer now. He hadn't run into any more of the people that looked like they were from the Columbus hospital, which seemed like a good thing. He hadn't met any people either, no one from his town, and he found himself wondering if his parents got out alright.

He kept to the back roads, knowing that the military would be on high alert now and wanting to stop anyone they came across. He didn't know how far it would go if he did get caught, but it was proof enough that they had bombed the city.

The barn loomed in the distance, bringing Joel back to some slightly happier memories, but only for an instant when he realized that he didn't see his brother.

_David said he would meet me here,_ his thought made him look around the outside of the barn as he got closer, not seeing his brother anywhere.

He walked around to the large doors of the barn, hesitating for a moment before starting to open them. Something nearly hit the side of his head, forcing him to bend down to avoid being hit.

"What-?" he started to ask, but David came out of the barn with an apologetic look on his face.

"Sorry, I didn't know it was you," his brother apologized, and Joel noticed one of the hunting rifles they stored at the barn in his brother's hand.

_That must have been what was going to hit me,_ he concluded shaking his head in slight annoyance.

"Maybe I should have knocked," he answered, then pointed to the rifle, "What are you doing with that? Don't tell me that we're going hunting at this time of day."

The sun was lower in the sky, getting on towards evening now. The light was partially blocked from the barn as David closed the door, bolting it from the inside now that he was here.

"We're not going hunting," David shook his head, "We need to talk."

"About what?" he questioned, feeling some anger. If his brother had asked him to come out to the barn with no specific reason, then he was going to-

"It's about what's happening around here," his brother stopped his train of thought, "Around the whole world now, I guess."

"What are you talking about?" Joel asked, a bit harshly this time. His patience was running out fast.

"The 'sickness' that's been going around, it's a lot worse than we would have first thought. It's a parasitic fungus that mainly infects insects. Now it somehow can infect humans," David started explaining, showing his 'scientific' side.

"You learn all that at the lab?" he asked, sitting down on one of the wooden chairs.

David worked as a scientist for the government, so his work was mainly 'top secret'. Joel was starting to wonder if this was their latest project gone wrong.

"Some of it. The other parts are more…" his brother trailed off, changing the subject back to the illness, "Cordyceps; that's the name of the fungus. It takes over the motor movements and brain."

"Why does that matter?" Joel was fast figuring out that he couldn't find answers, and whatever his brother was trying to explain was forming into a stereotype.

"The people that come in contact with the fungus, they're becoming…" his brother obviously didn't want to say the word, so he offered it.

"Zombies?"

"No, not zombies. Infected, that's what they are," his brother was frowning now, making the situation worse.

David started to pace the barn floor when both of them became silent, something clearly on his mind. Joel didn't bother asking, he was already trying to process what the new information meant. It was somewhat hard for his mind to wrap around. Everything that had been joked about in movies and games, it was all now coming true.

"So, that means that _Dawn of the Wolf_ and the apocalypse is here," he commented after a few minutes, remembering back to when his brother had asked him to go to the "teen" movie.

He hadn't understood at the time, but David had been planning a surprise birthday party, and needed him away from the house in order for everyone to sneak in.

"It's not like that…" his brother began but got frustrated again, "Listen to me. Can I trust you?"

Joel took a moment to assess what was coming out of his brother's mouth. Could they trust each other?

"What kind of question-?" Joel started to ask, but his brother interrupted him.

"Just answer it," David cut in, seriousness now covering every ounce of his face.

"What do you think?" he countered, staring into his brother's eyes. David looked away, nodding.

"I know so much, not only because of my position, but because there is a group. We believe that something big is coming, well has already come, but that there is a way to stop what is happening," David started to explain, "We are known as the Fireflies."

"That's manly," Joel started to joke, but nearly started laughing at the seriousness on his brother's face, "You have got to be-"

"I'm not lying. There has to be an answer to all this, one that science hasn't and won't be able to figure out."

Joel shook his head, walking a few paces away towards the scattered hay in the barn. He was finding this all very hard to believe.

"What do we do now?" he asked, knowing that his brother had some kind of plan in mind.

"The military is setting up quarantine zones to make sure the infection doesn't spread. We should head there first and figure out how to help from there," David explained, starting to climb up to the second floor of the barn.

"Where's the closest one?" he asked, hoping they didn't have to travel too far.

"Boston," his brother answered, "We can stay here for tonight and gather what we need in the morning."

Joel nodded, letting out a breath as he formulated a plan. Boston was a long way, but if they wanted any chance of surviving, they would have to travel the distance.

If only he knew what "surviving" really meant now.

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Sorry I haven't updated in a while! I have been busy with life and then updating my other Last of Us fanfiction "Broken". I am going to work on this as much as I can, and I am sorry if it might seem slow at first, but I have majority of it planned out; I just have to write (or in this case, type) it down. In this chapter, we got to see a bit more of Joel with his brother David (not David from the game, but David as in Joel's brother in "Survivors). The first part of the plot will be heavily based on surviving in the new, transforming world after the outbreak (but that isn't all, I still have cliffhangers and plot twists thrown in as well). Please tell me what you thought, as well as any suggestions, in a review!

-AnimeWolfGirl9


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